Student of the Week: Graham Swink

Our latest student of the week hails from Elder High School. Graham Swink is a senior for the Panthers. His teachers will tell you he is the ‘poster student’ for the school.

WCPO

Our latest student of the week hails from Elder High School. Graham Swink is a senior for the Panthers. His teachers will tell you he is the “poster student” for the school.

Graham challenges himself in and out of the classroom. He’s a member of the National Honor Society, and has achieved academic first honors nearly his entire time at Elder.

“His effort every day is outstanding; he comes to class prepared and always has a positive attitude. Graham has also been selected to the National Honor Society the last two years,” Kurt Ruffing, Assistant Principal and Dean of Students at Elder, said.

Swink faces another challenge on a daily basis though -- he has cerebral palsy. It’s how he overcomes this that truly shows off his perseverance.

“In a society which many people will use this type of handicap as an excuse to avoid work, Graham is just the opposite and welcomes challenges of all sorts,” Ruffing said.

Graham enjoys being a part of both the football and baseball teams. He spends countless hours working “behind the scenes” as a student-manager.

Swink also takes time to tutor elementary students from two different schools. He’s always happy to help anyone out he can.

He also has served as student council class president and as an Elder student ambassador.

“One of graham’s projects that really inspired his classmates, teachers, and staff at elder, as well as many Elder alumni, was during his junior year, he started the Legos engineering club. The students in this club, under Graham’s leadership, built replicas of Elder’s school building and Elder’s football stadium. Each of these replicas contained over 9,000 Legos pieces,” Ruffing said.

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